We got to celebrate Nanny’s (Steve’s Grandma) 85th Birthday! Everly enjoyed seeing everyone, and when Steve gave a sweet toast, about how he loved going to “Palm Pings” to visit his grandma growing up, Everly also hogged the mic & repeatedly wished “Happy Birthday Nanny”! So special to have a Great-Grandma for Everly to spend time with! And seriously- Look at that desert!

After our class at The Makery– I saw some neat posts on instagram from another craftsman in the community space. I sent him a message about possibly making a reclaimed wood infil panel for our fireplace.

We visited his workspace, to scope out the materials he’s picked up around town, and here’s the final piece- we LOVE it. Love hearing about where the wood came from, especially since some of it is from orange, (especially since Steve is also sourced from Orange! haha.)

Team Steamie does Monterey! We booked ourselves a cute Airbnb- and hit the road to Monterey!

Everly loved saying “Cation”, and “Monterey” and, of course “Fishies” since we’d been telling her there would be lots of fish to see at the aquarium.

Doing a little research before hand we learned about the Dennis the Menace park- it was a HIT for our playground obsessed little lady. She covered every inch of this playground- even the things we thought were a bit to advanced… those are some BIG ladders! haha.

The house we stayed at also included passes to the aquarium- so we visited it both Friday & Saturday. Out firiends Szara & Makalah met us up for fun with the fishies.

Aside from the aquarium, we walked, explored, and [excitedly] rode the trolley around town, strolled, checked out the coastline & ate lots of yummy food.

Everly is STILL asking for more cation, and more Monterey! SO clearly we just have to plan more trips! 🙂

As a make-up mothers day gift to ourselves- my mom and I attended a weaving class at the really neat space- The Makery. Located in the Community space- it’s a really neat little collection of shops/workshops, and obviously flamenco dancing too.

We arrived to little DIY looms waiting for us, and loads of yarn options.

After a couple hours- we each had our own creation to take home! I’m looking forward to future classes there, and to making more weavings on my own at home!

While typically I love nothing more than a good before & after photo comparison,

seeing the “After” in our very own kitchen has come with much more bleh/frustration/angst than I had ever hoped.

To be sure, it is still very NOT PERFECT. And man, did the process make us [ok- mostly me] VERY unhappy.

But behold the power of transformation! The “after” sure does make our house feel like new, now that we’re finally (sort of/ mostly) DONE.

The last item on my to do list (beyond the lingering construction defect issues!) was to add the roman shade over the kitchen window. Voila! Thank you The Shade Store for simply showing up & putting it in correctly the first time. haha. We needed something to go smoothly in here! This window is our same old window- but with the removal of the mini-blinds- it feels much more open!

We love how much more open the whole kitchen is now- without the low ceiling, and the wall & pocket door at the dining room. Our bench seat in the dining room gets way more use now too, as it’s easy to sit there facing the kitchen or facing the dining table- depending on where the activity is. 🙂

So, no thanks to the awful process we went through to get here, we are very happy to be home with our new and improved space!

and I swear, we’ll take a bit of a break from the remodeling to all recover (both emotionally and financially!) before we tackle the master bathroom (and the 70’s shell sink!!!)

We spent our new years eve snuggling (aka being the human mattress) while our Teeny Steamie sweated and slept off her mystery fever. Poor babe, nothing is more sad than looking at those little eyes all glossy & cheeks all flushed with sickness. But thankfully she perked up on the 1st, and so far has been her happy (and feisty) self for the new year.